Croatian food and pharmaceutical company Podravka has achieved net profit of HRK 80.1 million (€10.8 million) in the first quarter of its financial year, up 14.8% year-on-year.
The double-digit growth was mainly due to the performance of the group's product range, assisted by control of operating costs.
Revenues at Podravka Group increased 2.9% to HRK 1.02 billion (€137.5 million), marking the first time sales revenues for the first quarter surpassed the billion-kuna mark.
The group's Food segment saw 3.3% growth to HRK 815.5 million (€109.7 million) in revenue, of which own brands accounted for HRK 757.1 million (€102.1 million), or 2.1% more than a year earlier.
Within Food, Baby Food, Sweets and Snacks saw the highest growth (+11.5%), followed by Fish (10.8%) and Culinary (2.9%).
The Pharmaceuticals segment achieved HRK 201.9 million in revenue (+1.4%).
Geographical Performance
Geographically, the highest sales growth was recorded in the Western Europe and Overseas (+6.8%) region, to HRK 118.8 million (€16.0 million), followed by Eastern Europe (+4.8%), to HRK 65.4 million (€8.8 million).
However, the Adria region, which is the company's largest, posted 3.7% growth to HRK 703.5 million (€94.9 million).
Podravka said that focus for the rest of the year will be on the traditional markets where the group is already strongly positioned, on investment in new product development, and on further efficient cost management.
During 2019, Podravka expects the payment of part of the border debt of Agrokor (now Fortenova Group) for the calendar year 2018.
As of 31 March 2019, receivables amounted to HRK 48.2 million (€6.5 million), of which HRK 24.5 million (€3.3 million) relates to the border debt.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
